346. Shadows (1959)
Directed By John Cassavetes
Synopsis
Three siblings, two boys an a girl, live together. Two of them can pass for white, the other one can't. The film explores race relations and their life.
Review
If you notice that synopsis is pretty vague. That's because there isn't much of a story to the film. It works as a vignette, just snippet of life, without being really concerned with plot. This is definitely purposeful as the film is going out of its way to defy what was up until now standard film-making.
It is in this defiance that the film becomes essential. The improvisational quality of the acting, the jagged quality of the editing, the be-bop soundtrack, the interracial sex. Nothing of "good Hollywood practice" remains.
This is also the main problem with the film, it seems more concerned with exploding convention than film-making. However these kinds of films are needed to propel the genre forward, and you can see the influence of this trickling down to our days. In this sense it is indispensable.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Film critic Leonard Maltin calls Cassavetes' second version of Shadows "a watershed in the birth of American independent cinema". The movie was shot with a 16 mm handheld camera on the streets of New York. Much of the dialogue was improvised, and the crew were class members or volunteers. The jazz-infused score, some of which is composed by jazz legend Charles Mingus, underlines the movie's Beat Generation theme of alienation and raw emotion. The movie's plot features an interracial relationship, which was still a taboo subject in Eisenhower-era America.
First Scene:
Synopsis
Three siblings, two boys an a girl, live together. Two of them can pass for white, the other one can't. The film explores race relations and their life.
Review
If you notice that synopsis is pretty vague. That's because there isn't much of a story to the film. It works as a vignette, just snippet of life, without being really concerned with plot. This is definitely purposeful as the film is going out of its way to defy what was up until now standard film-making.
It is in this defiance that the film becomes essential. The improvisational quality of the acting, the jagged quality of the editing, the be-bop soundtrack, the interracial sex. Nothing of "good Hollywood practice" remains.
This is also the main problem with the film, it seems more concerned with exploding convention than film-making. However these kinds of films are needed to propel the genre forward, and you can see the influence of this trickling down to our days. In this sense it is indispensable.
Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Film critic Leonard Maltin calls Cassavetes' second version of Shadows "a watershed in the birth of American independent cinema". The movie was shot with a 16 mm handheld camera on the streets of New York. Much of the dialogue was improvised, and the crew were class members or volunteers. The jazz-infused score, some of which is composed by jazz legend Charles Mingus, underlines the movie's Beat Generation theme of alienation and raw emotion. The movie's plot features an interracial relationship, which was still a taboo subject in Eisenhower-era America.
First Scene:
posted by Francisco Silva @ 2:54 AM
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